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A coalition of unions, farmworkers, fair trade advocates, ethical businesses and retailers is confronting Fair Trade USA (FTUSA), a US-based fair trade certification agency, for ignoring human rights abuses and its own standards in certifying a Honduran melon grower with a long history of violations.

Protesters gathered outside the United Nations headquarters in New York today demanded an end to state-sponsored forced labor in Turkmenistan’s cotton industry and presented a petition signed by over 84,000 people from around the world that urged the Turkmen government immediately release Gaspar Matalaev and allow him to continue his work safety. The demonstration was during Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov’s first visit to the United States in three years.

Research findings published today reveal that many workers making H&M’s clothes live below the poverty line -- despite H&M’s promise of a living wage by 2018, and despite the brand’s recent deceptive claims of progress. Interviewed workers in India and Turkey earn about a third and in Cambodia less than one-half of the estimated living wage. In Bulgaria interviewed workers’ salary at H&M’s “gold supplier” is not even 10 per cent of what would be required for workers and their families to have decent lives.

In a climate of fear and intimidation and after months of delays, Bangladeshi authorities have announced the new monthly minimum wage of 8,000 taka (USD 95) for the 4.5 million workers in the garment sector in Bangladesh. This amount shows complete disregard for legitimate workers' unions and for the need to set wages through social dialogue.

Public sector workers not mobilized en masse to work in Uzbek cotton fields in Spring 2018

09/10/18

For the first time in years, public sector workers were not forcibly mobilized to plant and weed cotton in Uzbekistan in spring 2018, although serious structural problems in the cotton sector threaten to undermine this development. The Uzbek-German Forum, a Cotton Campaign member, released these findings in a report published today.

The Minimum Wage Board in Bangladesh will reconvene on Wednesday, 29 August, to set the new statutory minimum wage for workers in Bangladesh's garment industry. Ahead of this meeting Clean Clothes Campaign, the International Labor Rights Forum and Maquila Solidarity Network jointly urged major brands sourcing from Bangladesh to publicly support workers’ demands. These include the minimum wage of 16,000 taka, a statutory framework to govern pay grades and promotion and other welfare measures.

Ahead of the long overdue meeting of the national Minimum Wage Board, set to take place on Sunday, 8 July, Clean Clothes Campaign expresses solidarity with workers in Bangladesh and full support for their demands. We urge the Minimum Wage Board to increase the minimum wage to 16,000 taka without delay, and to adopt other measures requested by workers and their representatives.

The U.S. State Department upgraded Thailand to Tier 2, the middle of three possible rankings, in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report yesterday. It was one of several country rankings that have raised alarm among international anti-trafficking advocates, including U.S.

On May 31, the Thai Appeals Court ruled in favor of Andy Hall, a British labor activist who faced imprisonment for his legitimate work reporting on the abusive treatment of Myanmar migrant workers at a pineapple factory owned by the Thai corporation, Natural Fruit Company Ltd.

Reports of forced labor and other egregious abuse of workers onboard fishing vessels are likely to continue unless governments and industry actors take a different approach to remedying them, according to a report released today by the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF).

CCC and ILRF dedicate this year’s International Workers' Day to the 850,000 workers who produce garments for H&M, urging the brand to meet its living wage commitment

05/01/18

Starting on 1 May and continuing throughout 2018, the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) and International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) are placing the spotlight on H&M. We are asking the brand to turn around and stop heading in the direction of letting down 850,000 workers who are waiting to start receiving living wages – as H&M vowed they would by this year.

Today, shoppers and employees at twenty Abercrombie & Fitch stores encountered questions about whether the company will dial back on workplace safety in the garment factories in Bangladesh producing its clothes as students and consumers protesting at the stores chanted “Garment workers demand their rights / We will show and we will fight!” and held signs reading “Worker Lives Are at Stake” and “No One Should Die for Fashion”.

A few days before the fifth anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster that killed 1,134 workers, global trade unions and labour rights organizations are calling on all brands sourcing from Bangladesh to take responsibility for workers making their products by signing the renewed Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety.

A new report from the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) says that an arbitral panel’s ruling in the first case ever decided under the labor chapter of a free trade agreement “got it wrong” on workers’ rights violations in Guatemala. Written by three prominent international labor law experts, “Wrong Turn” edits down the 300-page decision into a reader-friendly 30 pages, and provides analysis and commentary at key points showing the arbitral panel’s flawed approach and conclusions.

Just two weeks before the fifth anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse – the deadliest disaster in the history of manufacturing – scholars, journalists, human rights advocates, and corporate and labor leaders from the U.S., Europe, and Bangladesh came together at the Ford Foundation in New York City to assess the state of workplace safety and labor rights in Bangladesh’s massive garment industry. The April 10 event, ‘Has Anything Changed Since Rana Plaza?

Andy Hall ordered to pay more than $320,000 in civil damages to Natural Fruit Co.

03/26/18

The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) condemns in the strongest possible terms a ruling today by the Prakanong Court in Bangkok, Thailand, ordering Andy Hall to pay 10 million baht ($321,000) in civil damages to the pineapple company Natural Fruit Co Ltd. The case relates to an interview Andy Hall gave to Al-Jazeera English in Myanmar in April 2013. The court also ordered Hall to pay 10,000 baht ($321) for the plaintiff’s legal fees and court fees, including interest of 7.5% from the date the case was filed until the amount is fully paid.

Over 100 organizations have now joined the call for an end to the politically motivated prosecution of Cambodian human rights defender Tola Moeun, since a letter to the Cambodian government was published last month.

With 100 days until the current Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety expires, garment companies are urged to continue their involvement to create a safe and sustainable garment industry in Bangladesh and to sign its successor, the 2018 Transition Accord.

The 2018 Transition Accord will continue the work of inspecting factories in Bangladesh, identifying safety hazards, and ensuring that they are corrected. As of today 109 garment companies have signed the 2018 Accord, covering more than 2 million workers.

As reported on January 18, 2018, in the Phnom Penh Post, prosecutors in Cambodia have sought criminal charges and an order for pre-trial detention against Tola and two other prominent civil society leaders, Pa Nguon Teang, an advocate for press freedom, and Venerable But Buntenh, an activist monk.